Asus Zenbook 3 preview: A superthin MacBook killer?

It seems every Computex Asus manages to get us to fall in love (or perhaps lust) with its latest Zenbook. And this year’s offering, the Asus Zenbook 3, is no exception.

It’s not only beautifully crafted, using aerospace grade alloy and the signature spun metal finish, but has an impressive set of specs. It is also extremely light at just 910g.

It’s quite clear that Asus has aimed to outperform the Macbook - the company certainly made no bones about it during the presentation. Its weight, being 10g lighter than the Apple device. is just the start.

Asus Zenbook 3: Superthin

It is also just 11.9 mm thick while the MacBook is 13.2mm and yet the display is larger than the Apple’s at 12.5-inches. The bezels are super slim, allowing the display to cover 82 per cent of the available space, and in the hand it felt superbly light. If you are looking for portable this is the new definition.

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Asus has gone all out under the hood too. The top-of-the-range model boasts Intel’s Core i7, 16GB of Ram plus a 1TB PCIe SSD.

Asus chairman Johnny Shih claims that the Zenbook runs two times faster than the recent MacBook, but we're yet to test that in the real world.

As a consequence of the extra power, fan design has been a significant focus. Asus has managed to come up with possibly the world’s thinnest at just 3mm, and it seemed to be doing the job when we handled the device. It must be said though that the laptop wasn’t exactly running anything particularly intensive, so we’ll have to wait until we get hold of a test model to be sure.

Asus Zenbook 3: USB-C

The Zenbook 3 is powered by USB Type-C and promises to reach a 60 per cent charge on the 40W battery in an impressive 49 minutes. The battery should be good for nine hours, according to Asus.

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The display is covered in Gorilla Glass 4, as is the trackpad. There’s an edge-to-edge gold backlit full-size keyboard, which felt pretty responsive when we got to have a brief play around with it. You can log in using the fingerprint scanner to the left of the pad, for Windows Hello one-touch access (eliminating the need to enter/remember passwords).

In terms of ports, like the Macbook, Asus has gone for the single USB-C. The get-around for this is to use a port bank - which Asus also makes - to allow you the full range of ports should you need them.

First Impressions

This really looks like it is going to be a beauty of a machine. It will come in three colours, Rose Gold, Quartz Grey and the divine Royal Blue.

Asus has really pulled out the stops when taking on its main rival. Thinner? Check. Lighter? Check. Faster? Check. At least based on Asus claims. We certainly can't wait to test the device itself to see if that really is the case. It's certainly very promising.

If you’re similarly enthused you’ll be glad to know that you only need wait until August when Curry’s and PC World will be selling the lower spec (Core i5, 4GB/254SSD) model from £549.99 and the top of the range model for £799.99.